Painful Memories: Part IV: The Stranger
by Sylvia1
Summary: With all of the Item Holders gathered, the gang is ready to face the Stranger and hopefully save the Pharoah before it's too late. Featuring: Yugi, Kaiba, Pegasus, Ryou, Thief King Bakura, Ishizu, Marik, Joey, Anzu and Rishid
1. The Sprawling Madness

The Thief frowned as Kaiba made his way outside; he leaned heavily on Pegasus, and even though he insisted on wearing his white trench coat with the Rod tucked in the belt of his pants, his typical menacing appearance was lost. He looked like he belonged in bed. Despite that, the Thief knew he was still necessary. The Rod had ownership now, and despite Seto Kaiba's physical deterioration, his mind was still sharp. Taking up a Millennium Item tended to push away any nagging doubts about the validity of magic. He wondered if Kaiba had accidentally taken control of anyone's minds since he took it up. If not, it would be something to look forward to at least.

Marik was talking animatedly to his sister. Pegasus had gone with Rishid to rent a second Jeep since there was no way they could all ride out to the Ceremonial Chamber in the single vehicle; unless they wanted to pile in like before. Rishid was apparently the worst at haggling however, and both of his siblings were exchanging snide comments about which of them should have accompanied him. The Thief rolled his eyes and settled his gaze on his shoes, Ryou's shoes. He felt a nagging in the back of his mind. Ryou was still back there, waiting to be dealt with.

When the Thief had first entered Ryou's body again, he had thought he had been thrust into someone else. Anger flowed through it like an unstoppable lava flow and he felt a keen bloodlust that was entirely opposite from the calm and timid teenager he had known years ago. His horror at finding that it was indeed Ryou only intensified when he saw Marik beneath him with a knife to his throat, a knife held by his hand. Panicking, he had thrust Ryou to the back of his mind then, pushed him into a distant, dark chasm and shut it off completely from the conscious body. Then he had stepped forward, taken full control, and dropped the knife to the ground. It was strange, being inside the boy again after being a bound spirit for so long. His senses had threatened to overwhelm him. He was solid, he could feel the blood pumping through him and sweat made his shirt cling to his chest. His breathing was ragged and the blood on his hands was bright crimson against his pale skin. It had taken a moment for him to remember how to use vocal chords, and he choked out Marik's name with more effort than it should have taken. Marik had hugged him, and the Thief couldn't stop Ryou's body from shaking. There was something else inside his mind. Something other than Ryou had been shoved back into that dark chasm. He felt it moving and waiting like a coiled serpent. He needed to take care of it, to help Ryou, but not until the body was safe. He needed a quiet place where he could think and focus, which was difficult to find at the Ishtar abode.

"Hey Bakura!" Marik slipped warm hands around his arm, and pulled him away from the driveway. "You trying to get run over?" Marik smiled at him but Bakura merely blinked. He hadn't even heard the vehicle's approach. "Are you alright? You haven't really seemed yourself since you got back."

"I've got… things to sort out," the Thief said and tapped two fingers to his temple.

"With Ryou, you mean?"

He nodded.

Marik's countenance grew dark and his brows furrowed together. It was a look he had seen often aboard the Battle City blimp, what the Thief had called his plotting face, and it instantly went to his groin. Even though it felt like ages since he had been in Ryou's body, apparently some parts hadn't changed that much.

"Ryou had been acting very strange before he took it. I think he was having another panic attack."

"Ahh," the Thief said, hoping it sounded like he knew what that was. Ryou did seem the type to panic often.

"Pegasus said he saw strange shadows in his mind." Marik was watching him closely, looking for any sign of recognition or surprise. He always hated it when Marik studied him like that. It made him squirm, and he never thought of himself as the squirming type. "There were thoughts of murder in his mind. He was resisting the urge to kill Anzu."

The Thief wasn't as surprised as Marik might have expected. Bouts of madness and urges to kill were common in his incarnations. Traces of insanity used to spring up in Ryou's mind like patches of weeds. With the Ring, the Thief could easily pluck them free, and did so every few months. He had grown accustomed to this sort of maintenance for all his vessels over the centuries; they were always prone to madness it seemed. Although he had never questioned it before, being distanced from Zork and Ryou for a couple of years had given him time to conjecture that perhaps Zork had been responsible. The coiled serpent waiting in that dark chasm might in fact be a puppet of the Stranger. He needed to examine it to be sure; and he certainly needed to purge it soon. He didn't want to reach the Ceremonial Chamber with the dark serpent lurking in the back of his mind.

"Bakura?" Marik was watching him with concern but the Thief gave him a small smile.

"I'm fine, for now at least." He turned to see the others all piling into the Jeeps. Pegasus was driving the rental, and every other Item Holder had climbed in with him. He chuckled to himself. Were they that nervous about riding with him even now? He climbed in the back of Rishid's dusty green Jeep and arched an eyebrow as Anzu climbed in the passenger seat in front of him. She must not have known that Ryou had nearly killed her earlier. Marik slid in beside him and looped an arm around his; Joey sat on the end.

"How long is our drive supposed to be again?" the Thief whispered to Marik.

"At least an hour. It's pretty far out."

"Good," he got comfortable and strapped on his safety harness. "I'm going to take care of a few things. It might take some time. Keep an eye out for a bit, won't you?"

It was comforting that he didn't need to explain himself to Marik. They knew each other well enough to understand the needs that came with wielding an Item. Marik had grown accustomed to the two Bakuras needing time to communicate.

He allowed his mind to recede. He was no longer Bakura here, a body housed by two souls, but purely the Thief. There was always a sense of comfort in being his spiritual self again. He moved past the doors of their soul rooms and on to the very framework of Ryou's mind. This was where he would go to clean out the madness that sprouted up. He had known that it likely had gotten worse after being gone for two years, but he hadn't expected it to be this bad. A clean mind was one that was easy to traverse, easy to find information in. Normally Ryou's mind was like an enormous library with shelves organized on all sorts of topics. No mind was perfect, but overall Ryou had a clear concept of his past, his future, and his existence. This mind was overrun.

The walls of books that were normally so neat and tidy had enormous sprouts of black tendrils shooting out of them. They tangled around the modest ceiling fans and tore through tome after tome, writhing toward him as he passed. Books were piled on the floor as tall as he was, and some shelves had been knocked down completely. It was more like walking through a jungle than a library. The Thief gave a heavy sigh and clasped the Ring; with this he could pull out the overgrowth and banish it in an instant, but it took time. He picked up shelves, reorganized books, and yanked out the sprawling madness in his attempts to right the library, to right Ryou's mind. Even though he was in a hurry, he needed to be careful. Ryou's mind needed to be in good order before they fought the Stranger. After he had plucked the last black tendril weed wrapped around the section on patience, the Thief allowed himself a short respite. He wasn't looking forward to the next step, so he decided to surface again.

He opened his eyes and felt his body jostling as they sped over the uneven terrain. He flicked his wrist to look at his watch and Marik jumped beside him.

"Damn it, Bakura!"

"What? I wanted to check the time."

"The Ring was glowing. I had to convince Rishid not to pull the car over and dump you in the desert!"

"You better not be planning anything!" Joey snapped over Marik's slender shoulder.

The Thief sighed and leaned toward Marik to whisper, "I told you: I had things to take care of."

"Yes, well it's really hard to convince them that you're not trying to kill anyone, when you totally look like you are!"

He rolled his eyes, "I still have work to do. Can you buy me more time?"

Marik folded his arms and gave a concerned look at the Ring. "What in the world are you up to? If you're trying to contact Zork or something…"

The Thief rolled his eyes. Somehow he didn't think this would be the last he would hear of such suspicions. "I'm trying to help Ryou."

Marik's eyes softened ever so slightly and he took a deep breath. As much as he complained, he knew that the boy's mind was fragile. "Alright, just be quick. It's hard to keep Joey quiet, and Rishid has been listening to sister too much."

The Thief looked into the rear-view mirror to see Rishid glaring at him from the front seat. He frowned and shifted in his seat. Even with the power of the Millennium Ring at his command, Rishid was the last person in the vehicle he wanted to anger. He knew how protective he could be of his brother.

"I will be," he said before gladly closing his eyes and allowing himself to retreat again. He drifted away from consciousness and toward the chasm where he could feel Ryou still waiting, and the coiled trespasser alongside him. He pulled back the mental blockade he had used to cut Ryou off from the rest of the mind. The walls here were dark and made of large, stacked stones; he had banished him to what looked like the inner passages of a pyramid, he realized with some amusement. Only nothing was here. The entire passage was utterly deserted, and only the light of his ring lit the walls around him. Oddly enough, he could sense Ryou's presence all around him. The Thief looped his fingers around the Ring.

"Take me to the trespasser," he muttered and looked to where the points of his Ring aimed. That was when he saw it. Ryou was there, but there was something dark and shadowy that swirled around him, shielding him from view. It made him look like he was part of the wall itself, as though he had been built into the masonry. Ryou was trying to speak, but the trespasser wasn't permitting the sound to be heard. It wasn't the Stranger exactly, but perhaps some part of him; some minion that had latched onto something deep and dark within Ryou, something cruel and malicious. It had pulled that malice to the surface, overwhelming Ryou in the process, and feeding on his mind. It was using Ryou's own rage and anger in order to control him, and worse yet, it had probably intensified his madness. That was why the library had been overthrown, that was why Ryou was having attacks of panic, and likely why he had been so close to killing Anzu. It was a parasite of sorts, one that had lived here for quite some time; possibly since the Thief had been banished. How dare something else attach itself to his host!

The Millennium Eye would have been a better choice for cleansing, but the Thief wasn't comfortable with opening the boy's mind to Pegasus. One glance and the man would probably claim he was too far gone to be salvageable. Using the Ring made it more difficult. He concentrated a direct beam of energy from each of the Ring's points to blast it, but the entity was too deeply embedded in Ryou's energy. It had two years after all to sink its pointed fangs in, and it wasn't going to let go easily. The shadows swirled around Ryou more quickly and he knew that using the Ring alone wasn't going to work. He needed to call upon powers beyond to get rid of it.

It had been some time since he opened a Shadow Portal, and it took a few tries before he managed it. When Necrofear popped her head up around the portal's edge, he grinned. Even still she stayed close to him. She had grown quite devoted to him over the years. With her infant in one hand, she wrapped an arm around Ryou's throat and pulled him back toward the portal; only while Ryou didn't move, the energy around him did. She pulled it back with a glint of red in her eye, and the Thief closed the portal behind them. She would make little work of it in the Shadow Realm.

Ryou fell to his knees and the Thief picked him up carefully. Together they returned to the boy's soul chamber. Ryou was exhausted, but alive. Their souls were intertwined now that the Ring had been returned to him, and already he could feel Ryou's spirit pulling on the Thief's energy to heal himself. He sat Ryou down at a round dining table with a flowery tablecloth that wasn't quite big enough to cover it and fetched a cup of hot tea for him. He couldn't drink it, of course, but the warmth and the smell would comfort him. Ryou had always enjoyed a simple soul chamber. It was a small town house that overlooked a quaint garden and an old fashioned street outside. He had no idea if it was a place that Ryou had ever visited, but everything about it spoke of him: the beautiful flowers blooming outside, glinting from a recent rain shower, the old fashioned blue patterned wallpaper lined with European dishware and carefully carved wooden statues, and the furniture that encouraged comfort and charm. Ryou looked exhausted, but there was a flush in his cheeks as he blink in the morning light that streamed in through the windows.

"You look better," the Thief whispered.

Ryou smiled at him and got to his feet. He wobbled a bit as he pulled him into a tight embrace. To the Thief's surprise, his own eyes stung with tears and he hugged him back.

"I missed you." Ryou gasped between sobs. "You saved me!"

"I-" He was grasping for words, trying to figure out what to say, but he was too shocked.

Ryou stared up at him with big caramel eyes, "Don't ever leave me like that again, _please_."

Something inside melted a bit at those eyes, at the emotion on his face, at the pleading in his voice. How could he refuse such a question? Even Zork had never held sway over his emotions like Ryou did. All he had to do was look at him and speak, and the Thief was stricken.

"I'm sorry," he whispered helplessly.

"You abandoned me."

"It wasn't my choice, Ryou. I didn't want to leave you, but-"

"So why did you do it?"

It was such a simple question, and it should have been easy to answer. How could he respond to that with some clunky hypothesis? Whatever control Zork had over him was merely conjecture. Even he didn't fully understand it. Zork's control had been nearly total by the end. It made him remember that night on Kaiba's blimp when Marik had insisted that Ryou should take that blast in Battle City. The Thief couldn't bring himself to do it. Yes, the plan would have worked, but the Thief couldn't bear to see Ryou destroyed. It was the first time his heart had melted with sympathy, and it wouldn't be the last. Marik never could comprehend the bond between them, the understanding they both had for each other.

"I'm sorry," he said again. "I won't leave you this time."

Ryou squeezed him again and pulled away. Already he had regained his balance and stopped trembling. His quick recovery was a testament to how much the trespasser had been feeding from his energies. "You had better not." Ryou swallowed down tears, "I don't think I can survive without you."

It wasn't an exaggeration either. The power of the Ring, and therefore his own power, was the only thing that kept Ryou from tumbling into complete madness. He never realized how necessary it was until now, and he felt shame fall upon him in a way that he hadn't felt for ages. He stepped forward and slipped a hand against the small of Ryou's back, moving his hand up his spine and up to the nape of his neck. Ryou shivered. If they had more time, their reunion would be far more exciting, but the Thief could feel them nearing the Ceremonial Chamber and the dark entity that waited there.

Ryou gave him a sad smile. Did he feel the Stranger too? Did he even know what they were up against? Had he seen anything when that beastly spirit possessed him? These questions would have to wait until later. The Thief brought his index and middle finger to his lips, kissed them, and then placed them on Ryou's. It was an old tradition, one he vaguely recalled his father doing before he would go out for a raid. Somehow those ancient, private traditions never really left him.

"Be careful," Ryou whispered.

"Of course. I can't allow either of us to die, you know." He smiled and he hoped there was some confidence shown there. "You need to get stronger. The madness took a dangerous hold over you. I have a feeling that won't be the last possession it will try on us. It knows now that we know much, and it may suspect that I have been spying on it for some time."

"Which is why you need to be even more careful. If it's able to torture the Pharoah like this, I don't want it getting its claws into you."

He gave a dry, bitter laugh. "Please, I'm far more difficult to catch than he is." The Thief turned away and allowed himself to rise into the body again. He was sitting in the same green, dusty Jeep, staring out the window at rocky outcrops poking out of distant sands. He blinked and saw that Marik had his head leaning against him. He gave Marik's arm a small squeeze, mindful not to make him jump this time, and smiled as Marik's violet eyes met his.

"Is everything alright?" Marik asked.

The Thief nodded. "We're getting close, aren't we? I can feel it." He could feel the dark presence ahead like a tightness where the Millennium Ring sat against his chest. He wasn't alone either; the atmosphere in the vehicle was thick with apprehension. He was fairly certain that his Ring had glowed again while he had fought the parasitic shadow in Ryou's mind, but no one gave dirty looks this time. They were all focused on what they would find at the chamber ahead.

The Thief already had a good idea of what they would find. He bit his lip at the dark, frightful memories and resisted the urge to make Rishid turn the vehicle around. The damned Pharoah better appreciate all the hard work it took to free him. A life for a life, so to speak. He had been a fool to ever make such a ridiculous promise.


	2. Ceremonial Chamber

How had she not known? That was the first question that came to Ishizu's mind as she pulled the rental car up beside the excavation site. The last time she was here, the entrance had been reduced to rubble by her own orders. She had thought that it would keep the Millennium Items safe; it never dawned on her that she might be unwittingly burying a good friend. Now with the aid of her Necklace, she could feel the dissidence here. The electricity in the air was undeniable and she felt anxious and on edge. She put her fingers to her throat, against the cold, golden eye in her Necklace. Something terrible was here, and she didn't need the Necklace to tell her that their path would be filled with danger. She jumped when Marik put a hand on her shoulder.

"Sister? Are you alright?"

She nodded, embarrassed, and looked around at the rest of the Item Holders. Yugi was holding his arms as though he was chilled, even though it was blazingly hot. In the distance the sun was only now touching the horizon. No, Yugi wasn't suffering from a cold breeze, but likely his soul was troubled. Kaiba didn't look as deeply affected as Yugi. Perhaps it was due to him only now taking up the Rod for the first time, or that his body was still recovering from the fight that it required. To her other side, Pegasus' normally jovial features were strained with worry and he looked pale and frightened as he stared at the mouth of the cave. Ishizu stepped beside him.

"What does the Eye show you?"

"Nothing." He whispered with a trembling voice. "I can sense no one before us, but somehow," he narrowed an eye. "Somehow I know that's not entirely true."

Behind them Rishid parked, and the others got out. Bakura was out of his trance now, and Ishizu searched his face for any sign of treason. Not that he would likely show it if he did plan to lead them into a trap. She couldn't dismiss the fear in his eyes though. He looked like a caged animal, fidgeting and unable to stand still as he joined them. For such an ancient spirit, it was even more troubling to see him so agitated, and Ishizu took a deep breath as she eyed the entrance.

Rishid came around to stand behind her, and Anzu moved quickly to join Yugi. She saw Marik come forward too, but instead of joining his sister, he preferred to stay with the Thief. Ishizu clenched her jaw, but made no mention of it.

"So, uh," Joey was looking at their hesitation with confusion. "Are we going in, or not?"

Yugi was the first to step forward with Anzu close behind him. Slowly they all followed their lead, and soon they were crouching down to step into the large ceremonial chamber.

When Ishizu had placed orders to have the entrance demolished, she was very specific. The idea was to prevent the location from being discovered and looted, not to damage the treasures that lay within. Regardless of how Marik might speak of it, her decision was difficult to make. She had to decide which was more important: her loyalty to her profession as a museum curator, her allegiance to her family traditions, or her duties as a bearer of the Millennium Necklace. A curator would of course put each of them into the museum. The Items had no use, or so they thought, and it would also be a nice way to get back at her Father after all these years. But there was Rishid to think about. Earlier when he had broken down at their Father's tomb, Ishizu couldn't help but feel a pang of sympathy for her brother. Their Father would have wanted the Items to be buried, worshiped, and protected. Somehow she knew that if she asked Rishid to do it, he would have done precisely that. It terrified her sometimes how devoted he still was to their lost father. Then there were her duties as an Item holder, which were in fact far more straightforward. Even though the Items were no longer useful, they did indeed require protection. One thing Ishizu did know from her years of studying artifacts was that one of the best ways to ensure their safety was to make them anonymous. Make them inaccessible, forgettable, and inconsequential.

It had seemed like an excellent compromise at the time. Now though, as Rishid and Marik broke out flashlights and they all stepped cautiously down the stone steps that Pegasus' excavation team carved out, Ishizu was kicking herself. Kaiba was faring the worst of them. He had to lean heavily on Pegasus as they descended, and at one point Joey even had to hurry down to help him. The ground was difficult to walk on, and it was easy to loose your balance. Even with floodlights setup along the way and warnings from Yugi and Anzu from up front, Ishizu had to brace herself against the walls with both hands. Knowing how badly burned Kaiba's hands were, perhaps it wasn't so surprising how difficult this was for him.

It took them a good half hour to reach the main floor of the cavern. Years ago, when the cavern had been carefully excavated, that same trip might have taken five or ten minutes, depending on the light quality and your familiarity with the jagged, stone steps. When they finally reached the main floor, Ishizu had to stop to catch her breath. Kaiba, Pegasus, and Joey were leaning against the wall, each looking exhausted.

"So how do we do this?" Kaiba asked, giving Ishizu a pointed glare.

"I haven't a clue."

He narrowed his eyes, "I thought you were the ringleader for this rescue mission."

Ishizu gaped at him. "Me? Why would you think I know what to do?"

He waved a hand at her, his gaze glancing downward. For a minute, she thought he was referring to her chest and prepared some witty retort if he said some sexist comment about her being a woman in charge.

"The Necklace," he finally blurted out. "Didn't it tell you what we're supposed to do?"

She swallowed hard. Of course he wouldn't be referring to that. Why would she even think something like that? It wasn't like she ever got the impression that Kaiba was attracted to her or anything, and as sexist as he could be in the dueling arena, he had never made even a slightly sexist comment outside of it. She felt very uncomfortable suddenly, and put a hand to her throat to reassure herself, and also to cover up the cleavage on her dress.

"No," she said. "It didn't tell me anything about that."

"Don't let it get to you." Bakura chimed in, and Ishizu realized that she had forgotten he was even there. He walked past them, locking eyes with both Ishizu and Kaiba in turn. "It will try to root out your weaknesses, insecurities, anything it can find to latch onto and prevent you from doing what you came here to do."

As Bakura passed, Ishizu glanced over to Kaiba, who was also blushing. Or was that from the exertion it took to get down here? Kaiba never seemed to have anything to be embarrassed about, but he did look away quickly when she met his eyes. He was speechless, she realized. He couldn't think of the name of her Necklace, that was why he had been flailing around and waving at it like that. It was as though the room became a bit easier to breathe in. She felt suddenly that she and Kaiba had something in common, that they really were working together on this.

Bakura was eying the tablet against the wall, the one that could hold each of the Millennium Items. In the memory world, it had been lying on its back like a slumbering pharaoh, but here it had been left standing up. The holes where the Items had once been stowed were gaping and empty. Sand had settled on the lowest areas of it, like it always does in Egypt, and Ishizu could almost make out the indentions in the sand where the Millennium Items had once lain.

"Is he still here?" Yugi's voice sounded like a child in the massive chamber. "Is he okay?"

"He is indeed here," Bakura whispered. Fear crept into his voice once again, and Ishizu couldn't help but notice the way his hands fidgeted at his sides. "I can't tell anything else."


	3. An Unwanted Kiss

Kaiba couldn't help the sigh of frustration at Bakura's words. "What do you mean: You can't tell anything else?"

Bakura turned to him, looking bewildered and confused. He wasn't the only one either. Ishizu looked embarrassed for some ridiculous reason, Yugi was shivering, though Kaiba was pressed to decide if it was from fear or the cold which seemed to pervade the cavern. For all the supposed experienced magic users that surrounded him, not a single one seemed to have a clue as to how to proceed. Normally Kaiba would gladly step forward and take command of the situation. Normally he relished the chance to lead, even if he wasn't an expert on whatever he was leading, he would at least get people motivated to move. But for some reason, this was a much harder task than it ought to be.

The words simply wouldn't come to him. He couldn't think of how he should proceed, or what he should say. For a man who considered himself a born leader, it was more than unsettling. He thought he might be drugged.

He turned to Pegasus, who had his arm looped tightly around his. So tight, he realized, that he could feel a throbbing near his shoulder where Pegasus' fingers were closed around his arm. "Did you all give me anything? Medicine?"

Pegasus shook his head. "No. Why would you think I would allow that?"

Kaiba blinked at the way that his simple question had been turned into an accusation. He opened his mouth, but his tongue felt thick and unresponsive. He hadn't a clue how to respond, which only made Pegasus more agitated. He felt the fingers tighten around his arm as Pegasus pulled him closer, and Kaiba could make out the glint of the Millennium Eye beneath his curtain of hair.

"Seto, I wouldn't have let them. I wouldn't have let them near you."

Now Kaiba knew for a fact that this wasn't entirely true. When he had awoken, Anzu was sitting beside him, not Pegasus. It was only after she and Joey had left, after his conversation with Mokuba, that Pegasus had come to see him. It had been rather odd that Anzu was the first person he saw when he awoke, but Pegasus' sudden clinginess made it difficult to think. In fact, Pegasus doing this while Joey was standing so close on the other side of him made Kaiba even more nervous.

"Alright, that's fine." He muttered, trying to close down the conversation. Pegasus would have none of it though. His good eye was glassy as though he was near tears and he reached a hand up to touch Kaiba's hair. That was simply too much. He grabbed Pegasus' wrist with one hand and pulled away from the vice-like grip on his arm. He reached around and took Pegasus' other wrist, looked him straight in the eye, and whispered, "Stop it."

Joey by now had turned toward them, his curiosity outweighing any level of dignity or respect that he and Kaiba had obtained. Kaiba's nerves were already on edge. He didn't need Joey adding to the problem. Joey stepped closer, arching his eyebrows with concern. "You guys okay?"

"We're fine," Kaiba growled.

"Jeez, look, I'm just asking."

"Well now you've asked. Move along."

"You two just look like you're fighting or something," Joey muttered. Sometimes it was absolutely baffling at how dense he could be. Seriously after two years, he had the intuition of a rock.

Pegasus couldn't hold back the emotion anymore. In retrospect, Kaiba should have seen it coming, but Joey was a terrible distraction for him. Pegasus wrapped his arms around Kaiba, leaned in, and kissed him. It wasn't a quick peck on the lips or anything, but a full-fledged tongue-in-the-mouth kiss, and at the most unwanted of times. Kaiba shoved him away. He could feel the heat in his cheeks and this time the words came easily.

"What the hell are you doing?!"

One look at Pegasus, and Kaiba regretted his words. Never before had he looked more hurt, more lost as he did now. "I don't give a rat's ass what they think!" Pegasus spoke so loudly that all heads were now turned in their direction. "For all we know we could die down here, and I won't hide my feelings for you any longer." He paused and stepped toward Kaiba again, arms outstretched as though in offering. "I love you!"

Kaiba felt all pairs of eyes on him, felt the heat in his cheeks, and the tightness in his chest. His heart was pounding in his ears and his hands were balled into fists at his sides. "Stop it!" He screamed, "Just stop it!"

Pain etched into Pegasus' face as he turned away, wiping at his eyes. Behind him, Joey whispered, "Calm down, man. There's no need to-"

Kaiba spun around with wild eyes. "Don't even start. This has nothing to do with you, Wheeler. Keep your god damned nose out of my business."

"Kaiba, please!" Yugi was joining in now. Were they all conspiring just to piss him off? It wouldn't really surprise him, and at this rate somebody was going to be beaten to a pulp, or at least turned into a sniveling pile of mush. (Though, hadn't he already done that to Pegasus?) He felt a tug at his coat, and turned, ready to grab hold of whoever was stupid enough to place a hand on him, then froze.

It was Yugi, and he looked desperate. It was the pleading look in his eyes that caused Kaiba to pause, not because of Yugi's insistence, but because it reminded him so much of Mokuba. "It's using you! It's trying to turn you against us so you'll use the Rod!"

Kaiba blinked. He had entirely forgotten that there was a _real_ enemy here. Something that truly wanted them dead. How could he have forgotten such a thing? He looked down at the Rod on his hip and tensed when he saw it was glowing.

Bakura stepped forward, his arms crossed. "If you let it play with your emotions so easily," his gaze moved between Kaiba and Pegasus. "It won't even need to make an appearance. It's far easier for it to push us into doing what it wants rather than risk taking damage."

Anzu was next to Pegasus, holding his hand and looking over at Kaiba with concern. He had expected to see anger in her eyes, but instead there was worry. She was concerned about him. Looking around, he realized they all were. Kaiba felt a shudder flow through him as he allowed himself to relax. He leaned back against the rock wall, then slid down to the ground. Joey steadied him' so that he didn't completely fall over.

Kaiba closed his eyes, "I'm sorry," he whispered. He didn't want to see the smirk of amusement on Joey's lips, or the hatred he suspected he would find in Pegasus' eyes. Then the room went dark, even through his eyelids he could tell. When he opened his eyes, Kaiba couldn't see anything, but Joey's grip on his arm had tightened.

"Kaiba? What's going on?"

"I don't know…" he whispered. Then he noticed that the room wasn't entirely pitch black. The Rod at his side was glowing and gave off enough light that he didn't feel like he was entirely blind. In the dim light he could see Joey beside him, smacking his flashlight and trying to get it to respond. In the distance, Kaiba slowly made out the Millennium Ring on Bakura's chest and Ishizu's Necklace. Panic gripped him as he hunted for the Millennium Eye. It would be smaller, but in this darkness he should be able to make out something. He got to his feet, and Joey followed him. Kaiba reached down and pulled out the Rod, holding it out in front of him. "Pegasus!" His voice reverberated against the rock, then a curtain of hair was moved out of the way and he spotted the Millennium Eye, moving toward him in the darkness. He could make out Pegasus' face and Anzu's terrified one at his side.

"Hey, where's Yug?" Joey asked. Kaiba looked around, but couldn't spot Yugi anywhere.

"Let's stand together," Marik said. "That way we can't lose each other." Marik was standing beside Bakura, Rishid was with Ishizu, but where the hell was Yugi?

"Yugi?" Anzu's voice was timid.

"Yug!" Joey called, starting to move away from him. Kaiba had to grab hold of his arm to prevent him from wandering off. "I've got to find him!"

"Wait, the Millennium Ring can find him!" Marik said, but the Thief wasn't answering. "Are you alright?"


	4. The Stranger Appears

Being able to see into multiple worlds was a bit of a curse for the Thief. He realized it as soon as the room went dark. It wasn't simply a removal of light or a disruption of the electrical gadgets they brought with them. It was the Stranger stepping through and into their world. The darkness was simply a side effect of his presence, and being near it this time, anchored to Ryou's body, it was an entirely different experience. He could feel the tightness in his chest, and the electricity permeate the air. He saw the arc of energy that shot out in unison at each of the flashlights, not just draining them like a simple spirit might, but destroying them in the blink of an eye.

He had suspected the Stanger's power, but seeing its affect on the earthly plane, feeling his influence on his very mortal body, watching how effortlessly it could dismantle their precious electronics made the Thief break out into a cold sweat. He was trembling, and even though the others were calling out to each other, looking for their friends, making sure that everyone was accounted for, he couldn't bring himself to say a damned word. The Stranger was with them now, watching, waiting, and at any point he could drag across one of his many shadowy tendrils and pull the life from them just like those damned flashlights.

What the hell had he been thinking when he promised the Pharoah he would return? What had possessed him to agree to any kind of promise? Desperation, of course. He was cornered, trapped in that awful plane, and when the Stranger had allowed them to choose which would go first, the Pharoah volunteered. He offered himself up to the creature willingly, knowing full well all that the Thief had done to try and destroy the world. He knew what a terrible person the Thief was, but he trusted him regardless. Despite Zork's influence, the Thief was fully aware that his own anger, his own cooperation was at the root of Zork's control. The ancient God was not the only one responsible for the Pharoah's state. The Thief was as much to blame for nearly destroying the world.

Perhaps it was more than desperation that had pushed him into that agreement.

"Are you okay?" Marik was staring at him intently, as though he thought the Thief would keel over at any moment. He must have seen the fear in his eyes, the color leave his face, the tremor in his hands.

"Yes," he said, his mouth dry and hoarse.

"Do you know where Yugi is?"

The Thief blinked. The others were looking at him too. He couldn't see their eyes precisely, but he could feel their gazes aimed at him like rifles preparing to fire. The Thief nodded. He didn't need to use the Ring to tell them where he was. He had seen him dart across the chamber and crouch down beside the nearly invisible remnants of the Pharoah. Couldn't they hear his sobs? He gave Marik a curt nod, and led them toward the back of the chamber. There was a tunnel back here. He knew where it was already from being trapped down here for years. It was more difficult to reach in a physical body though, and he had to squeeze through a narrow entrance to get inside. Yugi probably had little trouble considering his height and slight build. As they stepped through completely he felt a warmth in his hand and looked down to see that Marik had taken his hand, their fingers laced together.

Joey and the others were panicked over Yugi, though they couldn't see the Pharoah's spirit lying there, nearly decimated by the raw power of the Stranger. The Thief couldn't pay attention to them, he was distracted, and his eyes kept darting back to the narrow walls that surrounded them.

Kaiba stepped up beside him with Pegasus at his side. "Is it here?" Pegasus whispered. Why did he even have to ask? He was certain Pegasus could see these shadows and feel this creature far better than he could. He glanced up at the man's face, at the glowing eye that didn't look like it was real in his eye socket. His face was so white he might have been dead.

"Of course it is." The Thief said. "You can see it the same as I can."

Marik tensed at his side and Kaiba's eyes went wide. The Thief couldn't help but laugh, though he probably looked mad as he spoke. "It is far more powerful on this plane than I had suspected." He put a hand to the side of his head. "To be honest with you, we might have better luck in its own world."

He hadn't intended to activate it. The thought had occurred to him, but he really hadn't meant to actually use it. The Ring glowed regardless though. Perhaps it was just overly anxious to help its master after being separated from him for so long. Perhaps the Thief himself was still getting used to how to use the Ring after his prolonged absence. Either way, he had begun a chain reaction. The Rod glowed brighter, followed by the Eye and the Necklace. Even the Puzzle around Yugi's throat managed a dim gleam that was barely visible amidst the brightness of the other items. Then they were pulled away from their bodies, pulled out of the physical world and into the spiritual. The Thief felt himself laughing in spite of his terror. The warmth in his hand disappeared as he was propelled into a dark land.

Ryou was standing beside him, looking shocked and angry. He hadn't meant to bring Ryou too. The Thief turned as Yugi appeared beside him, then Kaiba, Pegasus, and Ishizu.

"What did you do?" Pegasus looked at him with pure panic. "What did you do?!"

"He brought you to help me." A weak voice answered. It was coming from directly in front of them, and it took a moment for the Thief to see him in the shadows, then he spotted the Pharoah's eyes. Those, he was pleased to see, were far more solid than the rest of his body.

He was going to have a hell of a time pretending that the trip here was intentional.


	5. Cold Fingers

The last thing Kaiba saw was Yugi crying. Only, he couldn't figure out why he was crying. There was nothing around him other than stone and sand, but something obviously had him very upset. Anzu had run to his side, and was asking him what was wrong, but Yugi only answered in tears. Something deep inside had frozen up like a fist in Kaiba's gut. It was familiar, but at first he couldn't figure out why. All he could do was stand there, frozen and speechless as Yugi sat on all fours and bawled into the darkness. As he realized precisely what this familiar sensation was, he shuddered; it was the same as when his parents had died.

It was such a distant feeling, one that he had felt when he was very small, that it was almost foreign to him. It had a powerful familiarity to it though, like a terrible taste that wouldn't leave your mouth. He was disgusted with himself. The Pharoah was his opponent, not his family and barely a friend. He had humiliated him in their first duel, taunted him with his continuous victories, and as much as Kaiba had tried, he could never quite defeat him. So why did this icy feeling tear through him?

Being lifted out of his body was also familiar unfortunately. It was the same feeling the Millennium Rod had given him when it tried to show him those visions of Kisara years ago. He and the Pharoah also felt it during their Battle City duel when the Gods had clashed. He was standing in spirit form in a dark place, with shadows that seemed even blacker than those that had surrounded them in the cavern. Yugi and Bakura were on one side, and Pegasus and Ishizu on his other. Their items, he noted, were all glowing. Kaiba lifted up his hands, unable to suppress the smirk on his lips as he examined the unmarred skin. Here, in spirit form, his body wasn't fatigued. Here his skin wasn't singed to that ugly pink he had seen at the edge of his bandages. He reached down and pulled out the Millennium Rod from his belt, smiling at the power that flowed through him.

"What did you do?" Pegasus gasped, his good eye wide as he looked at the empty world around them. He stepped forward, and turned to Bakura who was laughing helplessly, "What did you do?!"

"He brought you to help me." The Pharoah's voice was unmistakable, and the tightness in Kaiba's chest loosened as he made eye contact with him. His eyes were the only part of him that was distinguishable, though if Kaiba concentrated hard enough he could see the shimmer that made up the rest of his body like a heat wave.

Pegasus took a step closer to him, clearly trying to decide whether or not he ought to be angry or relieved. Kaiba at first resisted the urge to put an arm around him, but then recalled that there was really no point in hiding their relationship anymore. Everyone knew, other than the Pharoah, and Pegasus did have a point about them possibly dying in here. So he slipped a hand around Pegasus' waist and decided that he needed to take charge since no one else would.

Kaiba turned to the Pharoah, "Where is it?" His question sounded far more confident than he had intended, and the energy from the Rod seemed to pulse through him. Really it was easier to understand how Marik could be overwhelmed by this Item if he was already mentally unstable. Kaiba could tell that it took a strong force of will to keep the Rod tamed.

The Pharoah's face faded momentarily but then came back into focus. "He is… here with us. Yugi, please, I need your energy to help me."

Yugi was standing at a distance from him, his eyes red from crying, but his determination clear. "Is it really you? I thought for sure it had killed you. I felt where you had fallen."

Kaiba wasn't sure what the hell Yugi was talking about. The Pharoah hadn't had a physical form for thousands of years as far as he understood, so how did a spirit even fall to begin with? He tried not to get distracted by the details. The tug of the realist was ever at the back of his mind, and it was only because of the strength of the Rod in his hand that he was able to keep such criticism at bay.

"Yugi, it _is_ me. Please, I haven't much time left."

"Answer me this first. What was the one card I insisted we keep in our deck, even though you thought it would be a weakness?"

Kaiba could feel the world around them growing colder, the shadows darker. The Pharoah wasn't even a shimmer now, Kaiba could only make out his weak chuckle. "You never would let me take Kuriboh out."

At once Yugi's face brightened and he ran forward to where the Pharoah had just been, then something happened that Kaiba couldn't quite wrap his head around. For the briefest of moments, Yugi and the Pharoah were the same person. Their faces melded into one, and there really were two people standing in Yugi's place. One a few inches taller than the other with darker shadows around his eyes and a distinctly superior expression. A white light rippled between them for a brief moment, and then the taller of the two Yugis stepped forward, now fully whole and visible. The Pharoah turned and pulled Yugi into an embrace.

Kaiba felt a pang of jealousy pull at him, and he clutched Pegasus' waist tighter. Then the sound of a bell rang through the air. It grew louder and louder until Kaiba thought it sounded more like a whistle than a bell, and if he had real ears here, he wondered if it would render him deaf. Then a white, hazy shape stepped forward as though stepping out of some invisible door frame. It had a vague human shape, though that wasn't always the case. Limbs grew longer and shorter. Sometimes it had a head, sometimes it didn't. Although it didn't exactly have a face, Kaiba got the distinct impression it was looking at them, and that it wasn't in the least bit pleased.

The smoky white wisps that formed its body were constantly in motion, as though smoke had been collected in a jar and continuously swirled around. He tried not to look too closely at it because it felt like something very important was being undone somehow, like a slight tug on the lace of a shoe which held the entire knot together. Only the knot was his mind.

A wave of deja-vu came over him, and Kaiba realized that this thing was what had looked like Yugi the night he had taken up the Rod. It had also caught his hands on fire. He wanted to back away, but some resolve deep inside him forbid it. Perhaps it was Kaiba's pride, or his self discipline. Or perhaps this giant, hazy creature brought about the same rebellion that Gozaburo had once instilled in him. Either way, Kaiba maintained his ground, and slowly he realized he could hear again over the bell. He hadn't realized he had been barking orders, but as he looked to either side of him, he realized they had all moved closer to stand near him. Ishizu, Pegasus, Yugi, the Pharoah, and even the Thief. Though now he realized that Ryou was there with him, trying to stay hidden on the other side of the Thief like a child relying on his older brother to guide him through danger.

Kaiba held the Rod firmly in his hand, and it was glowing so bright he almost had to squint to see the monster before them. A tiny, nearly indecipherable optimistic thought murmured in the back of his mind. _Perhaps this won_ _'_ _t be so difficult after all._ Then the Stranger lashed out at them, flinging out limbs in all directions that could have been tentacles were they not made of mere smoke. He saw them hit the others first, heard their terrified cries, then one came out to him. It lashed across his eyes, hot and blistering like the fire that had engulfed his hands earlier. Kaiba stumbled backwards on reflex, and felt the energy that he had built up in the Rod diminish like a dimmer circuit. He frowned and lifted his head, trying to see despite the pain, but it was no use. It was as though his eyes had been seared shut.

Slowly the panic that he had caged in the back of his mind crept forward. The realist in him began to lose it. What did he really know about wielding Millennium Items? What did he know about magic at all other than what he had observed? He was holding a relic that had once been used to fight off gods from another world, but in his hands it might as well be a toy gun. Somehow the Stranger had blinded him, and all he could do was listen for the others to do something. If it was up to him alone, he would probably already be dead.

"It's an illusion!" Pegasus cried, though he sounded closer than expected. "That's all this thing does is create illusions. The real danger is when you start believing it's real!" Kaiba used his voice as a compass. He put his arms out in front of him, groping helplessly for Pegasus or any of the others. Hell, even the Thief would be welcomed. Finally he felt the familiar fabric of Pegasus' shirt, and gripped hold of his arm, much to Pegasus' surprise. "Seto?"

"It's me," he said. "Have you reached any of the others? Are we all blind?"

"No clue. I can't see anything though, and I guess you can't either."

"No." It was trying to disorient them, to scatter their focus and make them easier to fight. It was a crude tactic but an effective one, especially for a group of magic wielders who perhaps weren't quite the experts they thought they were.

"Pegasus, you can use the Eye to clear it!" The Thief sounded desperate, and quite distant. "We have to see where they're coming from."

They? Wasn't it only the Stranger they were having to be wary of? Then he felt a slight tugging at his coat. It was around the edges, and Yugi was the only person short enough to reach it. "Yugi?" The tug came again, hard enough this time that he would have lost his balance if he wasn't hanging onto Pegasus, who gave a grunt of surprise.

"What was that?"

"I don't know," Kaiba whispered, bracing himself.

"Clear the damn illusion, Pegasus!" The Thief was definitely panicked this time.

"Don't let them pull us down," Pegasus said to him as he looped an arm around Kaiba's and laced their fingers together.

"I won't," Kaiba said.

The Eye must have been reacting. Kaiba could see the light grow brighter and brighter beside him. He planted his feet and tried to prepare for the movement that was sure to come. Another tug came at his jacket, then he felt two cold hands loop around his ankles. If they were attacking Pegasus in the same way, which would make more strategic sense, then just bracing themselves wouldn't be enough. At the same time, he couldn't just grab Pegsaus and make a run for it. That could break his concentration. He gripped the smooth metal of the Millennium Rod and pointed it at his feet.

"GET BACK!" He roared and felt a surge of energy flow through him and a light illuminated from around their legs. The icy fingers quickly detached, but they would likely be back. The heat and pain around his eyes started to disappear, and as it did, he started to see writhing shadows all around them, crawling along the ground. He couldn't see individual forms yet, but he could definitely see where other item holders were. All of them, it seemed, had items that were glowing in the darkness, one so bright he at first mistook it for sunlight. It started to get closer, beside it came a dimmer one as well.

"Pegasus?" The dim one must have been Ishizu. Kaiba used the Rod to shoot out bursts of golden energy to clear shadowy patches on the floor around them.

As the bright item got closer, he realized it was in fact multiple people instead of one. His eyesight was finally clear now and he realized it was not only the Pharoah and the Thief, but also Yugi and Ryou. The Thief had made a bubble of energy around them. The light from the puzzle was bright, but the shield of energy seemed to have tendrils that emanated from the Ring. As they got closer, Kaiba and the others were also enveloped into the shield of energy that the Ring made, and the throng of writhing darkness on the ground was pushed aside like litter. Now that Kaiba could get a good look at them, he realized they weren't just made of darkness, but something else. They were skeletal creatures with longer arms than any human should have, and the shadows clung to them like a thick tar, clouding their true form. For that, Kaiba was thankful.

The Thief stopped to catch his breath, "There are just so damn many of them! Are they illusions too?"

"No, I'm afraid not," Pegasus answered. "If they had been, the Eye would have cleared them away as well."

"A distraction then," Kaiba said.

Yugi narrowed his eyes, "But where did the Stranger go?"

They all took a moment to look around, but other than the skeletal creatures that were waiting just on the other side of their protective shield, all they could see was darkness. The Pharoah shook his head, "Likely he's waiting for us to come to him."

"He's laying a trap," Kaiba added.

"I'm not so sure about that," the Pharoah said. "I think we've already been ensnared."

The Thief chuckled, "So we're just waiting for him to take us seriously."

Kaiba rolled his eyes.

Ishizu put her hands on either side of the Necklace and for a moment it blazed with light. "I see where he has gone, but I cannot see what will happen when we get there."

Pegasus sighed, "You know the Necklace is not completely reliable."

"I know," she whispered. "But after all, the future rarely is either."

Staying close together, they began to move through the shadows, slowly to make sure no one fell behind. Looking around them, at the emptiness and the sea of shadows, it really wasn't that difficult to think about the place as an alternate dimension. Kaiba was doing his best to see this as an alternate world and not some magical pocket. It was easier to wrap his mind around, and didn't make him doubt his abilities with the Rod. He had to admit that not being alone helped too, and when put into a corner, they actually made a pretty fine team.


	6. The Pyramid

The Thief was trying to figure out why the Stranger hadn't killed them yet. If it could wipe them out as easily as it seemed it could in the real world, what was holding it back, here on its home soil? Of course it could have killed the Pharoah ages ago, but it hadn't. Was that because it wasn't powerful enough to kill him, or because it simply didn't want to finish him off? Of course, the Thief had always been a rather suspicious person, and the thought occurred to him that perhaps the Pharoah was indeed dead, and this was simply an impostor put into his place. That seemed far too indirect though, even for this otherworldly creature. It liked toying with its victims, and it had quite a good time with the Pharoah. If Yugi hadn't shown up when he had, the Pharoah's soul would have probably been torn to shreds. The others might not be able to see how bad off he was, but the Thief could. His eyes were hollow, empty in a way that the Thief recognized. He had been there before, torn down to his base elements, though it had taken him longer to rebuild himself.

Perhaps it was because the Pharoah had Yugi to rely upon. Perhaps it was due to their strong friendship, their bond that for some reason was unbreakable.

The Stranger liked to toy with its prey, and that made it far more dangerous than a ruthless killer. The Thief had the feeling that this creature wanted to see how they reacted to its games. It wanted to see how far they could go, and it seemed excited to have them here. They did save the Stranger the difficulty of having to hunt them down and pull them apart from their mortal bodies. However they didn't have much time. Their mortal bodies wouldn't keep for eternity in the physical world while they toiled away here in this strange land. That included Ryou, who would be trapped here if his body died. Even if the Thief wanted him to join him in the Ring, Ryou couldn't. It would take powerful magic to cause a change like that, and none of them were knowledgeable enough.

Seeing that this was the Stranger's home, it would make sense that the creatures at their feet were the Stranger's victims. They were slaves now, mindless husks of things that did his bidding without thought or recoil. The idea of Ryou being trapped here in a form like that terrified the Thief more than he would like. Of all his physical incarnations he'd ever had over the centuries, he liked Ryou the most. He knew how to stay out of the way if the Thief knew what he was doing, but wasn't so terrified of him that he wouldn't stand up for what he believed in. Sure, he had mental instabilities, but of all of his incarnations, it was actually relatively mild. Besides, as long as Ryou kept him around, he could keep his mind free of the clutter of madness. Even if all the others fell here, he would rather die than let Ryou's soul be trapped here. He knew what that was like.

Before them a wall appeared out of the shadows. It could have been made of stone, or brick, but for some reason the Thief was fairly certain it was neither. The walls were a glossy black and he couldn't tell how tall they were because they disappeared into black clouds high above their heads. In the center, directly in front of them, was an ornate door made of the same material as the wall, but the carvings on it were what truly caught his eye. Finely carved spirals that could have been eyes stared back at them. Along the edges were more carvings, but he couldn't quite make them out at this distance. He hadn't realized he was picking up the pace until he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Be careful," Ryou whispered at his side. The Thief had almost forgotten the quiet boy was with him, his arm looped around his like a lost child. "You don't want to leave the others."

The Thief paused, but couldn't bring himself to look away from the doors. Something about it made him itch like when he was living in ancient Egypt, and he would spot some unattended jewelry or basket of fruit. He tapped his fingers against his legs and swallowed down his excitement. It had been so long since he'd had the urge to take something without a complicated plan, so long since he had felt the tug of an easy target. It was a door though, not some jewel. Why was he go tempted to rush towards it?

Only when the Pharoah had reached him did he start moving again. This time he was mindful of his speed. He was trying very hard not to let his excitement be noticed, though he could feel Ryou's fingers clutch his arm a bit tighter as they drew closer.

"What is it?" Kaiba asked from behind.

"Perhaps its where it lives," Pegasus said.

"Like its house?"

"This is its world," Ishizu added. "It can make whatever it wants out of thin air."

"I'm not getting you," Kaiba said, though the tint of fear in his voice spoke differently.

"This place is like one of my canvases, Seto. It starts out blank and I can add whatever I want to it. Only this is its canvas."

It's like a soul room, the Thief thought. The realization made him break eye contact with the door. If this entire world was the Stranger's to manipulate as a personal playground, then this place could be whatever it wanted. He thought earlier of the way the Stranger had manipulated Kaiba and Pegasus into an argument. It wasn't mere coincidence that he was getting the urge to swipe something. He looked around at the golden bubble that surrounded them.

"The shield is no longer keeping it out," he said as he came to a stop. The others began turning around, looking for some enemy to have snuck in somehow.

"Where is it?" the Pharoah asked.

The Thief placed two fingers to the side of his head. "It's trying to affect my mind."

Pegasus' Millennium Eye glowed before the Thief could even finish his sentence. "What in the world could you possibly steal? There's nothing here!"

"I don't know!" he spat, noticing the way Kaiba and Ishizu eyed him with suspicion. "Whatever it is, it's behind that door!" He pointed to it without looking at it. He didn't trust himself to look at it again. Last time it was all he could do to turn his gaze, that he didn't know if he could muster the strength this time.

"Calm down," Ryou said. "Just don't think about it. You know it's trying to control you, so don't let it."

They were only a few yards away from the door now, and realizing that only made the desire engulf him. He took a sidelong look at it, and before he knew it, he was running forward. Ryou's warm arm disappeared from his, but he barely noticed it. He had to see it. He had to at least lay eyes on the beautiful item behind the door that was destined to be his. From behind he heard footsteps, but he was a spirit and, unlike the others, knew how to use his incorporeal form to move faster. His feet lifted off the ground and he shot forward. The world around him fell to a blur and all he could see was the shiny black handle before him. Only a few meters to go and he reached an arm out almost able to take hold of it. Then a golden light engulfed him. It blinded him and he shut his eyes against it.

The door was momentarily forgotten as his eyes adjusted to the light. When he opened them again, he realized that he was floating in the air. The golden light was actually the walls of a pyramid, very much like the one that hung around the Pharoah's neck. As his cage was dropped to the ground, he saw that the Pharoah's puzzle was glowing.

"I'm sorry." He said, "We can't let you go in there."

Kaiba was walking back to them. He must have been the one trying to catch him on foot, the silly mortal. "Nice catch," he smiled with that annoying smug grin of his.

The Thief slammed his fists against the wall of the pyramid. Whatever greed had overtaken him earlier was quickly getting overshadowed. Over the centuries, he had been imprisoned many times. Sometimes the cells were large, and he would share them with other thieves, murderers, rapists; whoever was unlucky enough to be caught. Other times though, the cells were tiny. One cell he had been cast to in the 1600s was little more than a closet. There hadn't even been enough room to sit down. His jailer was a cruel man who rarely brought food, but the meal would always be rotten, or at least poisoned in some way. Slowly his host had died, but the Thief had witnessed the way his mind had slowly deteriorated. The experience made him hate tiny quarters. Even Ryou's shower at home made him wince. He had always hated cages. They reminded him that he was a trapped spirit, cursed to be chained inside the Millennium Ring for eternity.

This was even more of a mockery, to trap him in a cage shaped like the Puzzle itself. He could feel the welling up as a smile crept up on the Pharoah's lips. Surely he didn't intend to keep him in here. Surely they weren't going to leave him as a caged animal in this place. He was too useful, he was too good at wielding magic, and too clever to be kept in such a small cage.

"Okay, that's enough," he muttered with as much calm as he could. He worked to keep his voice steady. "You can let me out now."

The Pharoah narrowed his eyes, "And why should I do that? This looks like an excellent opportunity to get rid of a villain who has been permitted to trail me for too long."

The Puzzle pulsed with light, and the walls of the Pyramid began to move inward.

"What- what are you doing?" He asked, pushing against them although he knew he couldn't muster the strength. The Puzzle was built differently than the rest of the items. It was made to be stronger, its inner maze more of a labyrinth, its owner chosen by the Gods themselves after all. He looked at the others, crowded around the Pharoah with mild concern. Kaiba was the epitome of apathy. Ishizu watched with a kind of gross redemption as though she was going to sacrifice him to her personal gods. Yugi was only one really upset; tears stood in his eyes, but he didn't raise a voice in the Thief's defense.

At last his eyes fell on Ryou. He knew of his claustrophobia, so well in fact that when they were living together, he had started to leave the Ring on the counter when he showered instead of allowing it to embed itself in his chest. Ryou wore the Ring now, and it didn't even give off a faint glow. His face was a mask of sadness, but there was no outrage there. He looked as though the Thief had already been killed. Of course, that was true in a way wasn't it?

"Ryou," he choked as the walls of the Pyramid forced him to crouch down on his hands and knees, like a slave or beggar. "If he destroys me, I will cease to exist completely. I will be smitten from existence! Do you understand what that means?"

"Yes," Ryou gave an empty smile. "I do understand it, and I'm actually just fine with it. I think I've always wanted you gone from my life, and now it'll finally happen."

Something inside felt like it snapped at his words. The Thief dropped his head down to his chest and tucked his knees close as the pyramid continued to shrink, but tears formed in his eyes. Ryou was the one reincarnation that he actually liked. The quiet boy who had a soul room that looked like a cozy English cottage, whose mind he had cleansed of madness just earlier that day. Ryou was perhaps the only person in the world who understood him, who had ever understood him really, and here he was smiling at him being squished into oblivion. The Thief had no more words in him, just a hollowness that seemed unending, and the tears streaked down his cheeks.


	7. A Dangerous Weapon

The only person who could think to act when the Thief darted off toward that black gate was Kaiba. He sprinted at full speed, faster than Yugi had ever seen him move before, but he wasn't quite fast enough. As soon as the Thief touched the handle, his entire body went limp and he fell to the ground. From beside him, Ryou screamed and became a blur of white hair as he ran up to meet his spiritual half. Everyone followed, though Yugi was mindful to stay close to the Pharoah. If that door could bring down the Thief with such ease, there was no telling what it could do to the Pharoah.

The Thief's body was motionless, but his eyes were wide. The color in him seemed muted, as though a dark shadow had fallen over him, but there was no sunlight here to cause shadows. By the time Yugi had caught up, Ryou had turned him over onto his back. The Ring around his neck looked completely inactive.

"What happened to him?" Ryou asked, his voice breaking.

Yugi stared at the Thief's face, his distant expression. It didn't look the same as when Pegasus or Dartz had been stealing souls. Those bodies were empty of sense, almost like a zombie. It was also different from when Marik enacted penalties during Battle City and sent his enemies to the Shadow Realm. The Thief's eyes were not closed, but wide and his entire body was trembling with fear. He wasn't in some distant place. His soul was here, but somehow his consciousness or whatever made up his mind was elsewhere. Yugi looked down to the Ring again.

"What could it have done with him? This is his soul, so it hasn't been trapped or anything." Yugi said as he furrowed his brows.

Ishizu and Ryou had pulled the Thief into a sitting position, though his limbs were stiff and difficult to move.

"I don't know," the Pharoah whispered. "You would think that the Ring would have protected him. Even when he was running he still had that protective shield up."

"Yeah, but when he touched that door…" Yugi wasn't sure how to finish his thoughts.

"Speaking of that shield," Kaiba said as he looked over his shoulder towards where they came from. "Without it, we're going to have a difficult time avoiding those tar monsters."

Yugi turned to look, and yes, he could see in the distance the swarm of shadows moving closer. Perhaps that was why it had targeted the Thief first, to keep him from shielding them. If only he or the Pharoah knew how to make the Puzzle shield them. He was pretty sure it could, especially with the way their combined energy made it glow so brightly earlier.

Kaiba was looking at each of them with annoyance, "Where can we go? If we try to go in, we could end up comatose like him."

"If we stay here, the Stranger will eventually wear us down," the Pharoah said. "Either way it is herding us."

Yugi turned to Ishizu, "Can your Necklace tell us where to go?"

She shook her head, a pitiful expression on her face. "I cannot. I've already tried. The future that the Necklace shows me is just as dark and cloudy as this place."

The Pharoah turned to her, his eyes wide. "So it is able to interfere with your Necklace?"

She nodded, and added, "We thought that if we had the Items, we would be able to protect ourselves. The Thief thought that was all we would need to defeat it."

Kaiba scoffed, "That's obviously not enough, is it?" He stared down at the Thief sitting in a hunched cross-legged position at their feet. His limbs tensed in odd ways and he shuddered every few seconds. Occasionally you could hear the catch in his throat at a quick gasp of air. "One or two Items isn't going to be enough. Earlier when I held up the Rod, I could feel your energies moving toward me. I could feel you helping me." He paused, grappling for the words. Yugi forgot that this was Kaiba's first time at using an Item. Oddly enough it was comforting to see that even a genius like him, someone who introduced tournaments on grand stages surrounded by thousands of people, would have a hard time finding the right words.

"When they get used together, they are powerful," Yugi said, smiling at the look of relief on Kaiba's face. "I've used the puzzle a lot, but not with other Items really. Not since the Memory Tablet."

He felt a hand land on his shoulder, and turned see Pegasus eying the Thief with concern. He must have been standing there, silent, behind him for quite some time. His Millennium Eye glowed beneath his hair. "Yugi, he hasn't been sent anywhere."

Yugi blinked, "What?"

"The Thief. He's still there, but his consciousness is trapped in the Ring. Somehow he's trapped him in his own Item, in an illusion of some kind." He blinked for a moment, and then his brown eye snapped to Yugi. "We have to get him out or else he'll be killed."

"Pull him out of the Ring? How do we do that?"

Kaiba blasted one of the tar creatures in the distance with his Rod, but Yugi could see they were steadily moving closer like a black, rolling fog. "If you're going to make a decision, quit talking and do something already."

Yugi looked between Kaiba and Pegasus, not even sure where to start. Pegasus crouched down on one knee and placed both hands on Yugi's shoulders. "Your Puzzle, Yugi. It has a maze inside, right?"

He nodded, not sure what that had to do with anything.

"Surely you both have explored it." Pegasus glanced to the Pharoah who was now standing beside him.

"Yes, but what does-"

Pegasus closed his eye for a moment and gave a brief sigh, "All of the Items have chambers like that within them. Some are elaborate like yours, meant to be confusing and easy to get lost in. Others, like mine are more simplified." Pegasus squeezed his shoulders, "Yours is meant for figuring out puzzles, for solving games where there are no games." He pointed a finger in the Thief's direction, and now that Pegasus had mentioned it, he noticed that he did look unnaturally pale and even translucent in places. "Your task, Yugi, is to find a way to reach him in his mind, and lead him out."

Yugi shook his head, "But my Puzzle isn't made for that!"

Pegasus' expression hardened. "Your Puzzle is intended to solve any challenge, any difficulty. Only you hold yourself back. Look…" He took Yugi's hand, and the Eye glowed a brilliant gold. He felt the Puzzle vibrate against his chest. Pegasus put a hand out, pointing at the Millennium Ring.

"Look there, look closely. You'll see it, the pathway that leads in. All you have to do is solve it."

The Pharoah crouched down beside him and murmured, "I see it!"

As he spoke, Yugi started to be able to make out what Pegasus was talking about. It was like the Ring blurred out of focus, and instead he saw tangles of something blocking his view. Something was preventing him from seeing what was happening. He could make out brief glimpses of moving color in the background. Yugi walked over and began pulling the stuff out of the way.

"Are you sure we should do that?" the Pharoah asked him.

"What do you mean?"

The Pharoah had his arms crossed over his chest and his gaze was locked on the Thief. "He has spent thousands of years intent on destroying me, and nearly got you and your friends killed as well."

Yugi considered this. It was true that the Thief had done terrible things, especially when they were trapped in the Memory Tablet. He was working so closely with Zork that at times it was difficult to tell who was who. They seemed almost to be one mind, one body simply taking on the form of his friend Ryou, simply mimicking the voice of the Thief. If that was the only part of the spirit he knew, then it would have been an easy choice, but it wasn't. He also knew that the Thief took a blast from an Egyptian God during Battle City to save Ryou from taking the full brunt of it. Yes, you could argue that was for his own survival more than Ryou's, but their relationship would speak otherwise. He could see Ryou crouched down beside the Thief with tears in his eyes.

The Pharoah seemed to anticipate his thoughts, "Is it any wonder he would grow attached to his possessor? I find it disturbing."

Yugi blinked. He had never heard the Pharoah talk of shared bodies and soul chambers so harshly before. He never spoke of his own possession of Yugi's body like that. He hardly ever spoke of his emotions like that either. In fact, the more dangerous the situation, the more he would resort to pure analysis. It was one of the things that they really bonded over at first when Yugi realized that he did have a spirit living in his mind. The both loved games, they loved to analyze them, and they both took games completely seriously when everyone else discarded them as shallow and unimportant.

Yugi swallowed hard as realization struck him, but other than that he made no move to give away his knowledge. This Stranger was insidious, especially if it was brave enough to pretend to be the Pharoah. It should have known better than to try, especially since they were pretty much two halves of the same mind, but it did mean that it was desperate. Something about keeping the Thief trapped was important, and that only made Yugi more determined to set him free. In the meantime though, he had to shake the Stranger.

There was one weapon he knew would help, but it was dangerous. Yugi had never used it on his own, but he could see the Thief's body becoming more translucent. He didn't have a choice. If he called the Pharoah for help, the Stranger might vanish. It was either now or never.

Yugi turned to the fake Pharoah, and as he did he felt the weight of the Puzzle grow heavy against his chest. It filled with light as he spoke the fateful words, holding out a hand in front of him. "Mind Crush!"


	8. Mind Crush

Kaiba had been holding off the shadows in the distance. He had been trying to keep an eye on Pegasus, Yugi, and the others, but the shadows were getting closer. Some were speeding ahead, and he had to keep blasting energy from the Rod to keep them at bay. He was lucky that he had seen how the Rod was supposed to be used in Egypt, or else he might not have a damn clue what to do with it. But after tasting a bit of the power earlier when they had been surrounded by the tar monsters, he was beginning to have an appreciation for it. He was in the process of trying to build some kind of protective structure like Bakura had, a wall or maybe an enclosure, but Yugi's cry broke his concentration.

"Mind Crush!"

Those two words had haunted Kaiba's nightmares for years since that fateful first duel he and Yugi had played. It was also the last thing he had expected to hear here, in the middle of this dark limbo world. Kaiba froze in mid-blast, eyes wide and terrified as he waited for the crashing wave to fall against his mind. That painful wrecking ball that would slam into all his mental barriers, sanity reserves, and logic. It was a very primal response, one that hit so deep inside his heart and filled his limbs with icy cold terror that he momentarily wondered if he was having a panic attack. That couldn't happen though, could it? He didn't have a body here. If Joey were here, he would probably have the biggest laugh of his life, seeing Kaiba freeze up like a statue at the phrase, but Kaiba hadn't realized how much the experience had rattled him.

He understood now though, waiting for the mental punch. He held his breath. The shadows in the distance tumbled forward like dogs climbing over each other to reach them, thousands of vicious dogs. He wasn't sure how long he stood there frozen, but only when he felt Ishizu's warm hand take hold of his icy cold fingers did he start breathing again. He turned around with wide eyes, and it took him a moment to register that she was asking him a question. He read it on her lips before he heard the words.

"Are you alright?"

He swallowed, trying to remember how to speak. "Yes," he managed. "I'm okay."

She was tugging at him now, pulling him closer, and then Kaiba saw Yugi clearly. What finally pulled him from his fright was that Yugi was fighting something that Kaiba couldn't see. Relief hit him as he realized that Yugi hadn't aimed those terrible words at him. _Of course not, why would he?_ Slowly relief melted away the tension.

Ishizu squeezed his hand to get his attention. "Let's help him, shall we?"

In the corner of his eye, Kaiba could see the shadows so close he could possibly count them if he concentrated hard enough. Ryou was clutching at the Thief's stricken body and Yugi and the Pharoah were too engrossed in the battle to notice that they were about to be swarmed. Kaiba squeezed Ishizu's hand and began to charge the Rod, but he didn't shoot it as he had against the shadow creatures.

The Rod, it turned out, was difficult to control because it fed off emotions, whether it be anger, fear, or exhilaration, and Kaiba had plenty of raw energy to feed it.


	9. Rescue Mission

As soon as Yugi blasted the Stranger with Mind Crush, the false shell of the Pharoah had evaporated. The Stranger had tried to disappear in time, but hadn't been fast enough. Once the charade was broken, he could feel the Pharoah at his side, with a hand on the Puzzle next to his. Had he been there the entire time? The world seemed to vibrate, and Yugi's sense of balance felt off. He put a hand out to grab hold of the Pharoah's waist as the Stranger fought back.

Then he began to feel Pegasus diverting power toward him. He couldn't exactly tell why he knew it was Pegasus that was assisting him. There was something about the feel of the power, the determination and joy that came from it that told him it was Pegasus. In the corner of his eye he saw the Necklace gleam around Ishizu's neck. She was hazy and hard to see very well, but the Necklace was bright and vibrant against the haze. The vibration that he felt in his legs was somehow also affecting everything else as well. The only things he could see clearly were the Pharoah, the Puzzle, and the black smudge that made up the Stranger. It was engulfed in a golden glow now, and he could hear its scream. It didn't register in his ears, but deep in his own mind, as though he didn't have the ability to hear it without the Item at his fingertips.

Then the Rod began to glow. Kaiba held it out as though knighting someone. Yugi could feel the stability of it, the resilience. It felt like a rock amid the shaking world around him and he clung to the feeling. It steadied his vision and he could see clearer; he used his newfound strength to take a tighter grip on the shadow that was barely visible now amid the glow of the Millennium Items. Then it audibly screamed; Yugi could not only hear it, but he also felt it in his teeth and in his skull, like a migraine that bounced back and forth between his temples and shot down his spinal cord. The energy from his friends wavered. They must have been in pain too, but Yugi didn't release his hold.

This strange, spiritual entity had fooled them all. All that time Yugi and the Pharoah had thought they were moving toward a conclusion that they felt had been preordained in the ancient Egyptian tablets that the Pharoah had known in his youth. Now, though, Yugi realized that even those mystical people couldn't have possibly seen this far into the future. They had no idea what to do with the Items that had been gifted to them, any more than Yugi and the others knew what to do with them. There was no fatal destination for the Pharoah, no doorway that would lead him to another life. He was bound, perhaps forever, to the Millennium Puzzle, but it was more than that. He wasn't just here to learn more about his own past. He was here to protect the world from magical threats. He was needed here, and this arrogant, manipulative spirit had tried to kill him.

No, not just kill him. It would have destroyed him, drained him of his power. Yugi gritted his teeth. His fury which had felt so elusive from him for years now came back in full force. The Puzzle around his throat that he and the Pharoah both held shone even brighter, and the shadow screamed again. Then it started to move.

The Pharoah laughed. "Where is it trying to go? It can't escape us! Especially not with our combined strength."

Yugi felt his anger recede slightly at the Pharoah's cocky response. It was moving away from them, and toward both Ryou and the Thief. The Thief! He was still trapped in that other world, dying inside of it. The Stranger wasn't just fighting them, it was distracting them. It's target was still the Thief because even with all their combined energies, the Stranger was still not destroyed. If Yugi said anything, the others might try to help him. Their strength would be divided, and it could possibly still elude them. They couldn't keep up this rate of power forever, and the Stranger knew it. They needed the power of the Ring to assist them, and perhaps that was the Stranger's plan all along. It didn't need to destroy all of them, just one. For all Yugi knew it was already done.

He locked eyes with the Pharoah, then glanced deliberately to the Thief. All of their years dueling side by side, strategizing together, working together to take down the most vicious enemies meant that they knew each other so well, they could almost predict each other. Still, the Pharoah was clearly not pleased with the idea. Yugi gave him a small, reassuring smile.

With a worried nod, the Pharoah pulled more energy from the Puzzle. Yugi stopped his own assault, and turned to the Thief. The man was motionless now, and Ryou was no longer stretched over him. Instead he had a hand on the Ring around the Thief's neck, but he seemed to be fighting something else off. The Thief, much to Yugi's horror, was absolutely still. His mouth hung open and his eyes were closed. His translucent body no longer had the look of tension, but was eerily still and limp. The window that Pegasus had opened around the Ring was still visible, though barely. It too was translucent and Yugi had to move his head back and forth to be able to see where it was. As he got closer, he could make out the black strands that had grown now to completely cover the view of the world within like overgrown weeds.

Yugi reached a hand in. It felt like he was dipping it into a bathtub of cold water. He shivered, but grabbed hold of the strands that were clumped around the opening. They felt like cold, wet grass that had been floating too long in a pond. He had to tug harder than he expected to break them free, and as he pulled a clump loose, the ends wiggled in his hand like worms trying to reach the edges of the window again. They weren't just there to obstruct his view, they were living things whose sole purpose was to prevent him from getting in. He threw them aside, and kept digging. The second handful was easier, and the more he dug, the easier they came. Slowly he could see more of the scene within.

It looked like the same world they were in. He could spot himself, the Pharoah and Kaiba. Others came into view as he pulled out the last few strands. He began to panic though when he didn't see the Thief. Then he saw the enormous, golden pyramid, and realized that someone was trapped inside.


	10. Humiliation

The pressure on the back of his skull was becoming unbearable. He had made himself as small as possible inside of the Pyramid, curling his arms and limbs into a vertical fetal position, with his head tucked down. It hadn't taken him long to realize that it was probably the safest position to be in within the rapidly shrinking cage. He couldn't tell if the air was growing thin, if his lungs were rebelling against the enclosed cage, or if he was simply panicking. Either way his breathing was rapid and shallow, his eyes wide as the pressure grew on his skull. He had nowhere else to move though.

He tried adjusting his legs and moving his rear back so that he could lean his head further down, but it was useless. He had already outmatched the space he had been allotted, and there was nowhere else to go. He could feel tears seeping from his eyes. Of all the ways that he had experienced torture, imprisonment, and madness over the centuries, this was surely the worst. Already he felt the pain forming in his shoulders as the Pyramid walls began to fall on them. He could only hope that his neck would be broken before any other part of his body was crushed. At least then he might not be able to feel the pain, though really the physical pain was only part of this terrible torture.

"Pharoah, I beg you!" He gurgled, his chin digging into his chest like a knife. "I'll do anything, just end this." Sobs tried to rise up out of him, but he could barely breathe deep enough to allow them. He couldn't move, he doubted he could even scream. At this angle, he could merely whimper and plead with his tormentors.

He had to angle his eyes upward completely to see the Pharoah, standing with his arms crossed, laughing as Yugi walked around beneath him. The Pyramid stopped shrinking, and the Thief's panic increased. Surely he wasn't so vicious as to leave him like this. Yes, he had done some terrible things, but did he truly deserve this level of torture? He was hoping it would at least lead to his death, that would be a release at this point.

Beneath him, he could making out the spiky hair of Yugi as he wandered around. "Wow, I didn't think anybody could get into that position."

"I kind of wish you had chosen something other than a pyramid," Kaiba smirked. "I wonder what other positions he would have had."

Pegasus gasped, "Ooh, what about a spiral shape! Now I'd love to see that. We'll turn him into a contortionist at this rate!"

He was sure something was going to break soon from the weight against the back of his skull. He looked up to Ryou, the only person who might want to save him at this point, but he looked the most unmoved. His body was rigid and in the boy's normally soft eyes, he saw only hatred and disgust.

"Ryou…" he whispered.

The Pharoah brought up a hand and made a slight pinching motion with his fingers. The pyramid might have only shrunk a millimeter, but the pain made him scream. Something had broken. It wasn't bone, but some tendon perhaps had snapped finally. His vision was blurry as his body longed to pass out. Whatever magic had trapped him inside of the cage had given him disturbing human limitations as well. He started to let his eyelids slide closed, ready to give up, ready to allow his body to be crunched down like an insect, when he heard a voice in the distance.

"Thief!"

It was so distant, so difficult to make it out from the chorus of laughter below that he almost wrote it off as a hallucination. Pain could do strange things to the mind, especially when it was this intense and prolonged. Then he heard it again, clearer this time.

"Bakura! Thief!"

He furrowed his brows together and tried to figure out why someone was calling his name. No, he recognized that voice. It was Yugi's voice. He looked down at Yugi below, laughing at him with as much malice as the others. That wasn't the one who had spoken, it was coming from somewhere else. But if that were the case, then that would mean…

"It's not real," he whispered through gritted teeth. Realization flowed through him along with a searing hot anger. "It's not real!" He said again, as though the words simply needed volume in order to be true.

"You've got to fight it!" The distant Yugi said, "It wants you out of the way!" This time the voice was loud enough that the others could hear it too. Their laughing was cut off, and brought a fresh burst of fear within him. If they knew Yugi was trying to help him, if they knew the Thief was trying to break free of their control, they could clamp down the torture devices even more.

The Pharaoh lifted his arms up, "Be done with him!" He slammed his hands together and before the Thief could even register his clap, the prison began to close down tighter, pressing down against the torn muscle at the base of his neck, against the bones that felt all too fragile now.

"No," he whimpered, even as something snapped in his hip and pain shot up through him as though he had been sliced with a hot knife. "No!"

Then Yugi appeared beside him, misty and translucent, with a hand outstretched. His face wasn't etched in disgust and spite like the one below, but worry. "Come on, let's get you out of here!"

Yugi reached through the prison, and took hold of the Thief's hand, which was squished up somewhere against his calf. He felt as tangible and real as the prison, and the Thief felt a jolt of energy flow through him. The pain disappeared and the walls of the pyramid fell away and faded. He stood and stretched. Never before had freedom felt so sweet.

Part of him, the sentimentalist that usually got ignored in the back corner of his mind, wanted to pull Yugi into an embrace or buy him a drink or something, but he refrained. Instead he gave Yugi a relieved smile and allowed him to lead them upwards to a gray swirling gap high above the land. He would never have seen it in the position he had been in.

The Thief looked over his shoulder at the figures that had mocked him and tortured him below. They no longer looked like Yugi and his friends, but like shadowy creatures, the same tar-like monstrosities that had separated him from the group earlier. He felt a twinge of humiliation at the realization that he had been duped by the Stranger and his simple, mindless minions. Part of him wondered what it would have been like to be utterly destroyed. He had experienced many deaths, including his own so many thousands of years ago, but he hadn't a clue what absolute destruction would mean. Would he really move on to another world, or would he have been left floating in limbo? Perhaps such an end was the only way he would ever be able to break free of the Millennium Ring. A shudder went through him as he stared down at the Pyramid that had shrunk down completely now so that it was even smaller than the Millennium Puzzle itself.

Yugi must have noticed his hesitation, and squeezed his hand. "Come on," he whispered. "We still need your help!"

He nodded and turned away from his prison, away from his tormentors, and away from his morbid ruminations. He had helped Yugi save the Pharoah, and now Yugi was saving him. Perhaps for the first time in millennia they were even.


	11. Confidence

Ryou wasn't sure what was wrong with the others. Ever since Pegasus and Yugi started trying to help the Thief, everything seemed to have gone downhill. The shadows were looming in, and despite the fact that the Puzzle was shining brightly in Yugi and the Pharoah's grip, darkness was settling in. Usually he didn't mind being in the dark. Others might have found it oppressive or frightening, but Ryou always found it comforting. Normally it soothed the edge on his nerves, but ever since the Thief had done something to his mind, that edge had disappeared. He felt more focused, more comfortable in his skin, but most importantly, he felt like he could think again. It was wonderful to not be hampered by his own thoughts any longer, but regaining control of himself did nothing to fend off the shadow creatures.

The closer they moved, the more Ryou found himself sprawling his body on top of the Thief, as though he could possibly protect them. He was hoping Kaiba would keep them at bay, but when he looked up, he and Ishizu were in a trance, much like Yugi and Pegasus were. All of them seemed spellbound by something, but Ryou couldn't see anything there, just empty space.

The black misty creatures were only a couple of yards away now, swirling in heaps, like waves tumbling over each other to reach shore. Soon they would be on top of them. Somehow he knew that the others were fighting something far more dangerous than those creatures, perhaps the Stranger himself, but that didn't help. If the shadows reached them, their concentration would be broken, and they could all be separated again like before. A long, black tendril wrapped around Ryou's ankle, and he pulled it in quickly, hunkering his knees up to his chest. If only he could find a way to hold them off, to keep them back long enough for the others. Yugi and the Pharoah both had a hand gripping the Puzzle, which shown so brightly in their grip that Ryou could hardly look at it, especially with the darkness descending so quickly. He glanced down to the Ring on the Thief's chest, and balled his hands into fists.

Ryou had never tried to use it without the Thief's presence. It intimidated him and the very thought of having to figure out magic in mere seconds nearly made him give up the thought entirely. He was no magician and he never had the slightest inclination toward it. The few times that the Thief had let him try to use it, it had felt foreign and confused in his hands. It didn't know him. The Thief had possessed it for thousands of years. He had perfected his mastery of it, and it obeyed him without question. However in Ryou's hands it was clumsy and indecisive. One moment it did what he wanted, and the next it did the exact opposite. As desperate as they were now, if he tried to use it, the Ring could cause more damage than the shadow monsters that were nearly on top of them.

He felt more cold, dark tendrils crawl up his shoulders, causing goose flesh up and down his spine. Ryou shuddered, and already could feel their strength forming. He saw them looping up Kaiba's pant legs and hooking around Ishizu's elbows. They scuttled beneath Pegasus' hair and even lifted up a few strands, as though planning to tug him by his long hair to the ground. Although Yugi was the farthest away from the onslaught, he stiffened as a cold shadow circled around his throat. Seconds, that's all he had. If he had the mettle to do something, this would be his only chance. With a nervous cry, he lunged forward and wrapped his fingers around the rim of the Ring. He thought of the protective bubble that the Thief had formed around them earlier, and he shut his eyes even though his instincts screamed that he should flee rather than open himself up to an attack.

He felt something tug at his midsection, but Ryou clenched his teeth and held on tight. If they forced him to move, then the Thief was coming with him. They would have to carry both of them at once, because Ryou wasn't going anywhere. He focused on the bubble again, that perfectly round golden sphere. He thought of the texture, which reminded him of a honeycomb when he was really close to it. He thought of the light it emitted, and how occasionally he could see pulses of light travel through it like an electric current. He braced himself against the shadows again, ready for a more powerful pull this time, but it never came.

He opened one eye and looked around, half expecting a shadowy face to be staring back at him, but there was nothing. The coldness he had felt from the grip around his waist was gone, he realized, and then he saw the golden sphere. It was more like a golden egg than a sphere, and the walls were spotted with gaping holes at jagged angles, but he had willed it into existence on his own, without any help from the others.

He felt a laugh bubble up in him and grinned. For once he wished the others were aware just so they could see the work he had done, just so he could brag about how helpful he had been for everyone. He glanced around at each of them, his glee fading as he realized they were the same: standing like statues as they focused on an invisible point between them. On top of that, his distraction caused the holes to grow even wider, and he realized he too would have to maintain his concentration. He could feel the energy that flowed out of him and into the shield, but worse still, he could feel how limited it was. Half of this magic business was tied up in stamina, and Ryou wasn't sure how long he could last.


	12. Hallucinations

Seto wasn't sure how long he could maintain this level of energy. A few minutes in and he had already broke out into a sweat. You would think that he had just finished a marathon. The light of his Rod had even started to dim, and he put another hand on it, hoping that would help. How could he already be losing energy when he had only just started to fight? He shook it, knowing it was useless, but reflexively thinking it was a loose connection that caused it to falter. It couldn't be his mind that was the problem, it had to be the Rod itself. He smacked it in his other hand, panicking as the light dimmed further.

"I've got him!" Yugi blurted. As he backed toward the group again, the Thief sat up, blinking.

It was then that Kaiba noticed the golden sphere that had formed around them, a shoddy replication of the one that had been used earlier. His first thought was that the Thief had lost too much power to be much use, of course Kaiba wasn't being that helpful either.

"You're back!" Ryou cried.

"Stay on him!" The Thief said, turning Yugi around and the two of them added their energy to the battle. It seemed to be the boost they needed. All of the Items were glowing a brilliant gold, and the heat of the Rod felt nearly painful in his hands. It reminded him of the basement, of the searing pain on his hands, of the bandages that he still wore in the real world, but Kaiba stayed his ground. He wasn't going to be the weak link in the group.

A horrid cry erupted from the Stranger and suddenly the light was enveloping all of them. A wave of energy blasted through him, and Kaiba could feel a sudden range of emotions that he knew did not belong to him: anger, fear, hatred, desire, greed. They poured through his mind like water, almost overwhelming his own feelings and thoughts. He wondered if somehow his mind had been shattered all over again, just like when Yugi mind crushed him. His panic swelled up, slowly pushing the other emotions out, or perhaps they simply faded on their own. When the intruding thoughts had completely disappeared, he looked up at the world around them. The sky was dark, the black shadows that were surrounding them were eerily still like an ocean without waves. A deep booming noise sounded from behind doors of the black gate, the one that had frozen the Thief. Kaiba sucked in a breath involuntarily. Then it came again, the sound of a very low bell.

Then everything began to crack. It started around them, as though they were too heavy and standing on fragile glass, then the cracks extended out towards the shadowy creatures and shot off into the horizon. The cracks broke open, spilling out light so bright that it stung his eyes. The cracks hit the horizon in the distance, and instead of continuing on, shot upwards to tear the sky to shreds. He looked up in time to see shards of the sky fall to the ground in giant, sharply edged fragments. Only a few fell at first, then the monsters that had been attacking them began to burst as though they were nothing more than confetti party favors. As the cracks grew wider, they seemed to suck in everything around them, all the darkness and color, until the entire landscape looked sun-bleached. The ground fell out from beneath him, but Kaiba didn't feel the tug of gravity like he normally would. Instead he felt like he was floating. It felt much like the visions he had in Battle City, and somehow that realization comforted him, not that he knew what the hell was happening.

The smell of sand hit his nostrils, mixed with the stale air of a long deserted tomb. He felt slightly cold and then the pain from his scalded hands returned, as though he had merely been asleep and that entire surreal battle had been in his mind. It wouldn't have been the first time he had nearly lost his mind or seen hallucinations. When Kaiba and Yugi had dueled on top of that building in Duelist Kingdom, Yugi had created a poor polymerization of his Blue Eyes and Zombie Dragon. Kaiba would have sworn Mokuba had been there too, caught inside it like some terrible melting sculpture. Kaiba swallowed, noting the scratchiness in his throat and tried to decide whether this had been another hallucination. There were others there though, right? Surely that counted for something. If they agreed that it had happened, like they had when they had all been trapped in the Memory tablet, that would prove he wasn't crazy. Unless it was a mass hallucination, which was also possible. Kaiba shook his head in both frustration and a willingness for that cynical, logical voice in the back of his mind to be quiet.

"Kaiba?"

He opened his eyes to see Joey leaning over him, looking at him like he had just woken from a coma.

"Hey, are you okay?" Joey patted him on the shoulder and the action pulled Kaiba fully to consciousness and out of the confusion of his thoughts.

"Yes, I'm fine." He had intended to sound more confident than he did.

Joey turned, looking toward the others. "Looks like we've got one back at least!" The volume of his voice made Kaiba's entire body tense. He had an awful headache and the pain in his hands was more perceptible now. He pulled himself to a sitting position, and noticed that the others were slowly waking too: Pegasus, Yugi, Ishizu, and even Bakura. He couldn't help the small smile that came to his lips. It was always comforting to know he hadn't lost his mind quite yet. Sitting up though had made his headache storm to life. The feeling was reminiscent of a hangover, but somehow not quite the same. The throbbing was mostly at the front of his head, just above the eyebrows, where a hangover would simply hurt everywhere. If magic was controlled by a specific part of the brain, he wondered if that was where it was located.

He looked down to his side and saw the Rod still nestled in his belt where he had left it. He remembered it losing power in the other world, and wondered what would have happened if he had been completely drained there. Would he have been trapped there, slowly eaten away like the Pharoah had been? Would his body remain here, empty like the shells left behind when Pegasus stole his and Mokuba's souls? It made him shudder. There were few things that got to Seto Kaiba like losing his mental capabilities.

"You think you can stand?"

He nodded, not quite trusting his voice still, and allowed Joey to pull him to his feet. Normally he wouldn't want such coddling, but already he could tell he would have trouble walking. If his headache reared up at just sitting, it was nearly debilitating when he got to his feet. He leaned his head against the wall and felt the cold rock, it was a little soothing for the pounding in his skull. Joey looked at him with concern, asking something stupid. Couldn't he see he was in pain, and couldn't the stupid question just wait? He felt a hand on his shoulder and shrugged it off out of reflex. When two hands came down to clutch his shoulders, he knew it couldn't be Joey. He turned to see Pegasus staring intently at him, with a look that he usually only reserved for late night drinks and awkward confessions. Pegasus was never so serious out in the open, especially not around other duelists.

"We need to get you home," he said simply.

"I'll be alright." Though Kaiba wasn't even convincing himself anymore. He looked to the others. Ishizu didn't look like she had fared badly. Bakura looked dazed and disoriented, but he didn't look like he was having trouble putting one foot in front of the other. Yugi though looked an absolute wreck. He had dark bags under his eyes and he was unnaturally pale. Joey must have quickly left Kaiba's side once Yugi had awoken, because he and Anzu were trying to figure out how to help him to his feet. Being so short for once was a luxury for him. If he had to, Joey could at least carry him to the car. Kaiba wasn't so fortunate.

Pegasus' gaze hadn't left him. In fact he was still studying Kaiba up and down as though already sizing up what to tell the doctors when he brought him. "Here, you can lean on me." His gaze was still very serious. Perhaps he was a bit more injured than he thought. When he nearly stumbled to the ground with his first step, and Rishid rushed over to help, he knew Pegasus was right. God damn it. Why did he always have to be right?


	13. Cooling Coffee

Ishizu held the warm cup of coffee between her hands, allowing the heat to warm her cold fingers. The air conditioning had been put on blast ever since the group had gotten back to their house the evening before. All of them had crashed nearly immediately, finding whatever location they could to sleep. Joey had taken the couch, Rishid had given up his bed to Yugi and Anzu and had pulled a sleeping bag into the living room for the night. Kaiba took the guest bedroom, mostly because he was so badly injured, and Bakura and Marik had taken Marik's room. She wasn't sure where Pegasus had slept last night, though she assumed he was with Kaiba after yesterdays blunt announcement. She still couldn't quiet the pang of jealousy that she felt from that new knowledge. She sighed and poured a bit of creamer and sugar into her cup. It wasn't that she really had entertained any notion of having a chance with Pegasus, but as long as he was unattached, she was hopeful. However with an opponent like Seto Kaiba, she doubted she would even be a blip on Pegasus' radar.

She had slept deeply that night, but she had still woken at dawn, maybe sleeping a total of four hours overnight. It was a habit that had formed from her early working hours at the museum, and it was difficult to break. So she stepped cautiously around Rishid's sleeping bag, chuckled under her breath when she spotted Joey splayed across the couch as though he had been tossed there, and started brewing some coffee. She had even opened the blinds that looked onto her tiny garden in the backyard to watch the morning sun rise.

The sun had risen only partially when she heard movement from the back room. She suspected Marik was up, but hoped it was neither Bakura or Kaiba. She didn't feel like she could deal with either of them this morning, not on her own anyway. Perhaps she could make some excuse like needing to pull on real clothes instead of stalking through the house in her black housecoat. Or she could feign needing to do some laundry. She certainly didn't want to chance doing the dishes quite yet for fear of waking the others in the living room. When Pegasus entered the kitchen, his hair mussed from sleep and his clothes slightly rumpled, Ishizu couldn't hold back the blush.

He smiled at her, "Good morning." He spied the coffee machine on the counter. "Mind if I have some?"

"Help yourself."

He busied himself, and Ishizu kept her eyes glued onto her mug of coffee. It was one she had been given at one of the annual museum events, black with golden outlines of the pyramids in front of a blazing sun. She didn't like it. Something about the black mug and the outlines along it reminded her of that dark place they had barely escaped. She jumped a little as Pegasus sat down across from her.

"Sorry," he whispered. "I really am not trying to frighten anyone. Not today at least." He took a sip from his mug. His hair wasn't fixed, and she could easily see the Millennium Eye that was usually masked from sight.

"It's alright," she smiled. "I guess I'm still jumpy from yesterday."

He sighed and sat back against the chair. "We all are."

They were silent a moment, and Ishizu looked out at the garden again as she tried to figure out what to say. Even if she was never going to be in a relationship with Pegasus, she ought to at least be able to talk to the man. She might not see him again for years. That realization loosened her tongue, and the words spilled out before she realized it. "I was surprised yesterday, about you and Kaiba."

He gave a bitter laugh, "Yes, I guess everyone was." He shook his head and dragged his fingers through his tangled hair. "That wasn't the best way to come out I suppose, was it? All it did was set Kaiba over the edge."

"How is he by the way?" She hoped she wasn't being too forward by implying that the two men had slept in the same bed last night, but Pegasus didn't seem at all bothered by it.

"Exhausted. I'm pretty sure he just about drained himself last night, using so much magic right after taking up the Rod too and getting burned the way he did. I imagine it's going to take a few days for him to recover."

Ishizu couldn't help but brighten. "Does that mean you will be staying too?"

He nodded, "If I don't, he'll head back to Domino regardless of his injuries. Despite what he thinks, he's not going to be able to hide the bandages on his hands. People know him there, they'll be concerned for him, and he'll have to come up with some excuse." He waved his hand in annoyance, "Kaiba hates having to come up with those kind of lies. He's also terribly bad at them." A gleam entered his eyes. He wasn't simply in a relationship with Kaiba, he truly _loved_ him. He might not even realize it yet, but she could see it. She idly touched the Necklace around her throat. She was tempted to use it to see what the outcome would be for them. To find out if he was truly out of her reach, but stopped herself and laid her hand flat against the table. No, she wouldn't use her power to manipulate them. Pegasus was not interested in her, possibly had never been, but that was alright. She closed her eyes for a moment, and allowed herself to finally let go of that deep desire. She and Pegasus would be friends, and that was perfectly fine.

"You know," she said with a thick voice. "I'm having to come to terms with a lot of changes lately."

Pegasus nodded in his way that implied clandestine knowledge. Something tightened in her stomach. If he said anything about Ishizu's feelings for him, if he somehow knew, she was going to break down right here. It was too soon for her heart to hear it, and she just wasn't prepared.

"You're worried about your brother, aren't you?"

She smiled perhaps a bit too widely. "Yes, I am." She sipped her coffee to give herself some time to recover. "I don't think Bakura is good for him, but he's a grown man, and I don't have much of a say in the matter really." She realized at that moment how much she had projected her own misgivings onto her brother. She had berated him for wanting to see the Thief, when she harbored a deep affection for Pegasus. She had to stop lying to herself. She had known for years that she and Pegasus would never be together, and instead of realizing it, she redirected those feelings onto Marik. Yes, Bakura was unstable and could possibly break her little brother's heart in the future, but Marik had every right to experience it. Who was she to tell Marik who he could or couldn't love? She remembered then the crypt beneath the sands and Rishid sobbing at their father's grave. She even had the nerve to tell Rishid not to love their father.

Ishizu wiped at her eyes with her palms, and then with the backs of her hands. The tears were coming despite her best efforts, and she was shaking. The guilt, the shame, the knowledge that she had been wrong all these years was almost too much to bear. Pegasus stared at her with concern from across the table. She gave him a weak smile with trembling lips.

"I'm so sorry," she whispered, and stood up.

"It's alright. Here, come outside with me." He fetched both their mugs in one hand, and wrapped the other around her shoulders. They stepped outside through the front door so they wouldn't bother the others, and then walked around the house and into the backyard. Ishizu was drying her hands on her sleeve now, and Pegasus sat her down on a bench and put the mugs down on a tiny table. He wrapped his strong arms around her and squeezed her tight and the tears kept coming.

After a few moments, once her eyes were dry and she laid there with her head against his chest, she saw that the sun was already halfway risen. The air smelled of husky flowers mixed with dry desert sands. Already the heat was encompassing them, but Pegasus simply held her. Finally she pushed away and let him take her hands in his.

"Are you alright?" He asked.

"I just," she took a deep breath. "Have you ever realized just how wrong you have been? I don't just mean just slightly, I mean like you've been a completely insensitive brute!"

He smiled, "I think we all get to that point at some point, Ishizu."

She sniffled, remembering suddenly the first day that Pegasus had come to her house days ago. "I'm sorry you had to go behind my back to unearth the Items. You never should have had to do that. We should be able to trust each other as Item Holders."

He chuckled. "Honestly it doesn't matter who was right. All that matters is that we have the Items back and the spirits are no longer trapped. There's no point in getting upset about that now."

She watched the flowers swaying in the breeze. "It hasn't just been you. I've been judgmental of both Rishid and Marik."

He leaned forward, took her chin, and raised her gaze up to his own. "We all have faults, you know. Some of us didn't realize ours for many years." A pained expression came over him, one that Ishizu hadn't seen on his fair features for a very long time, and then it vanished. "You were doing what you thought was right at the time. The only thing you can do now is try your best not to do it again."

She nodded, and allowed Pegasus to put an arm around her shoulders after fetching their mugs of cooled coffee. Together they watched the sun rise, and Ishizu rehearsed in her mind how she was going to apologize to her brothers. She also had to apologize to herself. She was so obsessed with her crush on Pegasus that she had completely ignored what a wonderful friend he was to her. She could only focus on the negatives, but missed out on how lucky she was to have him as a friend at all.

They were all lucky really. Never before had so many reincarnations been alive at one time. They were able to put their differences aside and work together to defeat an ancient enemy. They were prepared now though. Whatever threat came upon them, together they would be able to stand united against it.

END

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Thank you all for sticking with this story for so long! It's hard to believe that I first started posting this back in March. I never really liked the way that the original Duel Monsters anime series ended, and thought that the dynamic characters that were left behind still had their stories to tell. It was quite a lot of fun to crawl inside their heads for this piece, to figure out what they would be up to years later, to see how they had changed or stayed the same, to explore whatever psychological damage might have been done. It's been a surreal romp, and I hope you've enjoyed it!

Sometimes it feels like writing epic fanfics like this are like writing in a vacuum. If you've read this far, I would love to hear what you thought of it with a quick review or message. And big hugs to everyone who commented or messaged me along the way. You kept me going even when I wasn't sure if anybody was even interested in this piece.

Thank you all for being such awesome readers! Lets keep our fingers crossed that the next YGO movie is decent too. ;)


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